janus trio at Ecstatic Music Festival Feb. 23

There’s still time to grab your ticket  to hear janus trio at the Ecstatic Music Festival, next Thursday, February 23. The trio will be sharing the stage with Jason Treuting (So Percussion), Nick Zamutto (The Books), Grey McMurray (Knights on Earth, itsnotyouitsme) and Daisy Press. Every piece of music that night will be brand spanking new and the group promises:  ”IT WILL BE KILLER.”

Follow this link to read what Allan Kozzin from the New York Times says about the Festival and good friend, composer extraordinaire Angelica Negron (who performed last week).

The Ecstatic Music Festival is hosted by New Amsterdam Records and the Kaufman Center.  There are several tickets options at different price levels. Follow this link for more info, tickets and sound samples of all the artists participating.

“In and Out of the Game” on Studio 360 Video

Yet more from the Guidonian Hand’s flurry of activity with Eve Beglarian — here’s a great video produced by NPR’s Studio 360 to accompany last week’s radio program.  We’re so proud!

The Guidonian Hand on NPR’s Studio 360 This Week

A recording of the Guidonian Hand from last week’s performance of music from Eve Beglarian’s “River Project” is currently being broadcast nationwide on the Studio 360 program out of New York!

For details on when the broadcast will reach your neck of the woods, check out Studio 360′s list of participating stations here!

Saturday: The Guidonian Hand Performs Eve Beglarian’s “River Project” in NYC

Our intrepid trombone quartet, The Guidonian Hand, performs Eve Beglarian‘s inspiring new “River Project” this Saturday night (Jan. 21) at the Abrons Arts Center in New York City.  In what’s sure to be a moving exploration of Beglarian’s impressions of the country’s original slow-moving superhighway, Guidonian hand will perform with violinist Mary Rowell and Loadbang in this first night’s program, “The Night of the Sirens,” (“…in which the harsh sound of a warning alarm in Plaquemine, Louisiana, is electronically deconstructed alongside a plaintive text by Rilke about returning home after a long journey without any words to describe it,” says the Abrons).  Subsequent programs on January 27th and 28th include performances by Newspeak, Taylor Levine, and Malcomb J. Merriweather.

Check our event page for more details.

The event was featured in the current New Yorker!

janus trio Talks New Music and NYC Grub at I Care If You Listen

A bit before janus trio‘s recent performance at Masters and Pelavin Gallery in New York, they were visited by Thomas Deneuville from one of our favorite blogs ever, I Care If You Listen.  Deneuville sat down for a chat with the trio and talked a bit about their album i am not, the evolution of their performances and rep, and their favorite spots in New York.  Click here for the video at ICIYL — we can only hope for more like this from ICIYL (so far there are great posts about composer Kate Moore, videographer and musical experimenter Florent Ghys, and more).

Ariel Artists Take On Eliot in “Four Quartets: Variations”

Mark your calendars now!  Major group performances are set for New York City, Cambridge, and Burlington this season as a Ariel Artists unveils its new “Four Quartets: Variations” program for late November and early December.

“Four Quartets: Variations,” revolving around T. S. Eliot’s inimitable sequence Four Quartets, is a theatrical, musical and poetic tour de force. Moored by the performances of four vocalizing actors and four poets interacting with excerpted and remixed text of Eliot’s Four Quartets, the project also features byways into performance sets by Iktus (percussion quartet) and The Guidonian Hand (trombone quartet) which expand the musical reaches and correspondences of the poem. Emphasizing the profundity and structural revelations of Eliot’s book-length text, the actors and musicians surround the poets’ recitations with extended techniques of all varieties, from improbable instrumental sounds to extremes of vocal and improvisatory production, letting the text re-echo in time past, time present, and time future. Fare forward, voyagers.

The performance in Cambridge, Mass., will feature the incredible Bryant Park Quartet in place of Iktus.  Poets will vary with each performance, but overall will include Jon Woodward, Oni Buchanan, R. Dwayne Betts, Thalia Field, Paige Ackerson-Kiely, Major Jackson, Katie Ford, and Cathy Park Hong.

Actors include Marya Lowry, Phil Timberlake, Corianna Moffatt, and Nate Speare.

Poster for the New York City performance of "Four Quartets: Variations"

PERFORMANCE DATES AND DETAILS:

November 28, 2011
Featuring Artists: Bryant Park Quartet, Jon Woodward, Oni Buchanan, R. Dwayne Betts, Thalia Field, Nate Speare, Corianna Moffatt, Phil Timberlake, Marya Lowry, The Guidonian Hand
Where: OBERON
Cambridge, Massachusetts
$15 adv/$20 door ($10 student)

November 30, 2011
Featuring Artists: The Guidonian Hand, Oni Buchanan, Nate Speare, Corianna Moffatt, Phil Timberlake, Marya Lowry, Paige Ackerson-Kiely, Major Jackson, Jon Woodward, Iktus Percussion Quartet
Where: University of Vermont, Davis Center
Burlington, Vermont
free admission

December 2, 2011
Featuring Artists: The Guidonian Hand, Katie Ford, Jon Woodward, Cathy Park Hong, Oni Buchanan, Nate Speare, Corianna Moffatt, Phil Timberlake, Marya Lowry, Iktus Percussion Quartet
Where: The Tank
New York, New York
$15

“Uncanny Valley” + New Piece for Solo Piano Commissioned from John Gibson!

Solo pianist Oni Buchanan and poet Jon Woodward have just announced a new piece for piano and electronics from American electroacoustic composer John Gibson.

The piece will serve as accompaniment and counterpart to a live reading by Woodward of his mind-bending new poem “Uncanny Valley.”  The full program is now in the works and is set for performances beginning in September 2012.

“Uncanny Valley” is a long serial poem in 16 sections, meant to be read out loud, with numerous optional repeats throughout the text. These repetitions act as accumulations of sound, maddening as well as hypnotic. Gibson’s piece provides a sonic environment in which the text floats freely, with its pacing determined by the two performers. Digital samples triggered by both performers mirror and enmesh the piano and spoken text.

Jon Woodward’s Uncanny Valley manuscript  recently won the Cleveland State University Poetry Center’s 2011 Open Competition and will soon be published by the school.  He  has two other volumes of poetry published: Rain (Wave Books, 2006) and Mister Goodbye Easter Island (Alice James Books, 2003).

John Gibson’s works have been performed across the world by groups like London Sinfonietta, the Da Capo Chamber Players, the Seattle Symphony, the Music Today Ensemble, Speculum Musicae, and Ekko!  He writes sound processing and synthesis software, and has taught composition and computer music at the University of Virginia, Duke University, and the University of Louisville. He is now Assistant Professor of Composition at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

Duo Orfeo In the Studio This Week!

Guitarists Duo Orfeo head into the studio today to begin a marathon 3 or 4 days of recording with producer/engineer Peter Blanchette.  At the finish line?  Their upcoming full-length release, “I sing the body electric,” a title inspired by Walt Whitman.  The Duo is capturing performances of some music we’ve heard in concert (such as Arvo Part’s “Spiegel im Spiegel”) and much that no one’s heard before.  The album will consist entirely of the group’s own arrangements for electric guitar of many compositions that have never been performed on guitars at all.  Says the group: “Almost all of this music is quiet, contemplative, and relaxing, yet (we think) very powerful and deeply moving.”  The album is scheduled for a November release.

Track list:

Arvo Part -  Fratres
Eric Satie – Three Gnossiennes
Federico Mompou – Musica Callada, book one I-III
John Cage – In a Landscape
Valentin Silvestrov – Quiet Music
Eric Satie – Three Gnossiennes
Arvo Part – Spiegel im Spiegel

Four Quartets: Variations

“Four Quartets: Variations,” revolving around T. S. Eliot’s inimitable sequence Four Quartets, is a theatrical, musical and poetic tour de force.  Moored by the performances of four vocalizing actors and four poets interacting with excerpted and remixed text of Eliot’s Four Quartets, the project also features byways into performance sets by the Bryant Park Quartet (string quartet) and The Guidonian Hand (trombone quartet), as well as guest artists Iktus Percussion Quartet, which expand the musical reaches and correspondences of the poem.  Emphasizing the profundity and structural revelations of Eliot’s book-length text, the actors and musicians surround the poets’ recitations with extended techniques of all varieties, from improbable instrumental sounds to extremes of vocal and improvisatory production, letting the text re-echo in time past, time present, and time future.  Fare forward, voyagers.

The quartet of actors are Marya Lowry, Phil Timberlake, Corianna Moffatt, and Nate Speare, while participating poets include Thalia Field, R. Dwayne Betts, Cathy Park Hong, Katie Ford, Major Jackson, Paige Ackerson-Kiely, Jon Woodward, and Oni Buchanan.

Grateful thanks to the following individuals for their support in producing this project:
Sponsors: Colleen Hovey and Chris Bator, Sirkku Kontinnen and Harri Kytömaa
Contributors: Robin Welte and Art Murray, Paula and Jack Barthel, David and Joella Hricik, Tom and Debbie Bross, Greta and Bob Ingraham, Jan Pechenik, Jaqueth Hutchinson

New Music Announced from Eve Beglarian for the Guidonian Hand!

We’re more than thrilled to announce that one of our favorite composers, Eve Beglarian, has just been commissioned by the Tribeca New Music Festival for a brand new 15-minute work entitled Pump Music. The piece will be composed for trombone quartet, violin, and “electronically transformed recordings of hand pumps that she has collected in campgrounds while traveling down the Mississippi River in 2009.” We’re particularly excited because the music will feature our own trombone quartet (who better?), the Guidonian Hand.

Eve Beglarian has been composing and publishing incredible music since the ‘90s and since then she’s seen her work performed and recorded by groups like the Bang On a Can All-Stars, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and many more. Her 2009 kayak trip down the Mississippi River made headlines when she began it, including an in-depth feature in the New York Times.  This summer, her music was performed at the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary American Music.

For more info on the current commission, visit the Meet the Composer site.

Stay tuned for more news as this season gets ready to kick off next week, beginning with a Stephen Drury residency at the University of Idaho!